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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26340517">Replaying with Fire</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/riiiied/pseuds/ried'>ried (riiiied)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:22:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,339</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26340517</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/riiiied/pseuds/ried</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Talanah meets Aloy again in the middle of a hunting trip.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aloy &amp; Talanah Khane Padish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Press Start VI</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Replaying with Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinouterspace/gifts">catsinouterspace</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Loosely inspired by the comic, though not canon compliant to it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Calm down, and wait for the right moment to strike," Talanah whispered to herself as she hid behind the bushes, disappearing herself out of the sight of the horde of unfamiliar machines.</p><p>The machines looked almost like a cross between a Ravager and a Stalker - a lithe body, with launcher weapons that spewed fire at any enemy. Reports of an unfamiliar machine causing destructive fires around the area had reached the Hunters’ Lodge, and Talanah had taken it upon herself to survey the area and clear it of the machines. And while helping the affected people was her main goal, she couldn’t deny that the idea of hunting a new type of machine, never seen before to anyone in the Lodge, brought a thrill with it as well.</p><p>The first machine was no pushover, but with a few well-targeted precision arrows, she still managed to take off its cannons in time, disabling its attacks and allowing her to draw close enough to lodge her spear into the machine’s torso. She knew better than to prematurely celebrate her victory, but even she was taken off-guard when a larger group than expected came ambushing her. Knowing that she couldn’t win in a straightforward fight in her current situation, she focused on dodging the machines’ flames and managed to run away out of the machines’ sight.</p><p>Now, with the machines’ back facing her and with her off their trail so far, she might just have a chance with the group of three on the other side of the bush.</p><p>She threw a pebble to distract the machines, and just like a predator drawn to its prey, the machines’ heads turned towards the sound. With the machines distracted, she loaded a blast bomb into her catapult and launched it at the machines. The explosion significantly damaged two of the machines, allowing her to finish them swiftly - but the third one had gone from where it was lying after the blast when Talanah turned around to finish it. Creaking sounds from her left alerted her to the reappearance of the third machine, and she blocked its pouncing just in time with her spear. By the time she pushed the machine off her, the rest of the herd had reappeared, all targeting her. She just managed to keep them away with a swing of her spear, but with these undamaged machines, she knew that the situation wasn’t looking good for her.</p><p>Just as she racked her brain for how to get herself out of this pinch, a fire arrow flew through the air and landed on the cannon of one of the machines, triggering an explosive blast that nearly knocked her off her feet. Turning towards where the arrow came from, her gaze landed on the branch of a tree - with a familiar face perching on top of it.</p><p>“Need a hand?”</p><p>“Come down here and let’s hunt like old times.”</p><p>Without sparing another moment, Aloy jumped down from the tree, three more fire arrows already docked onto her bow. As she paced forwards, she shot off the arrows at the machine closest to her, and quickly switched to her spear to keep away another one leaping at her. With the machine focusing on Aloy, Talanah took the chance to attack it from behind, firing arrows to take off its cannon, and in the shock of the impact, it bounced away from Aloy, giving her an opportunity to end it with her spear.</p><p>The rest of the machines were no match for the two of them working in tandem - Aloy, with that tool of hers, pinpointed the weak points of the machines, and Talanah shot away her hardpoint arrows to tear down the machines’ armor to expose their weak points as Aloy blasted their fire cannons off with her own arrows. Distraught from their weapons and defenses being teared apart, it was no challenge to close in and finish them off with well-targeted attacks using their spears. Soon, the two of them put away both their bows, switching to scavenging the carcasses of the machines instead.</p><p>“You sure picked an... interesting time to show up,” Talanah said as she pulled out a lens that seemed to be minimally damaged.</p><p>“Would you rather have been left to fend all those machines by yourself?” Aloy said back, pulling out a machine heart from a different machine’s carcass.</p><p>“No, it’s good to see you again after the Battle of the Spire. And It’s nice hunting with you again.”</p><p>“It’s nice to see you again too. Though… you haven’t been letting your hunting skills go to rust just because I haven’t been around, have you?”</p><p>“What do you take your Hawk for? The Sunhawk can’t rest just because her Thrush went somewhere nobody knows without a word.”</p><p>“Sorry about that. I’m not one for big celebrations, and also I had something I needed to -”</p><p>“It’s all right, you don’t need to report everything to me if you don’t feel like it.” Aloy had always had her mysteries, and as curious as she was about some of them, Talanah thought it good to let her keep some of her secrets. “It’s nice to see you doing well, though,” Talanah said as she lifted her haul from the machines.</p><p>Aloy, also lifting her pack, asked back, “What about you? The Lodge any more bearable now that you’ve been in charge for some time?”</p><p>Talanah let out a small dry laugh. “The biggest pain in the neck might be gone, but that doesn’t mean all of the somewhat smaller ones are. There are still people who aren’t happy with the changes to the Lodge decreed by the Sun-King, and now that the Sunhawk is someone who isn’t a male Carja aristocrat, they’re even less happy. And at least I still fit two of those, I can only imagine how bad it’d be if, say, you were in charge instead.”</p><p>“Whoa, hold it right there.” Aloy exaggeratedly pulled away from Talanah. ”You’re not giving up and throwing the responsibility to me, right?”</p><p>“To someone who might just get up and go away without saying a thing at any moment? No thanks.”</p><p>“That’s good to know. I already did the ‘be some tribe’s outsider leader’ thing before, and while I don’t regret any of it, I’m not exactly raring for another round of that just yet.”</p><p>“Wait, you did <i>what</i>?”</p><p>Aloy shrugged. “Long story, unless you want to hear that.”</p><p>Pretty much everything was a long story when it comes to Aloy’s journeys, although that was part of what made her <i>her</i>. “Actually, now that you’re here, why not stop by for a little while and tell the story then? Just for dinner, at least, although if you want to stay for a night, I’ll help you arrange that.”</p><p>“About that…” Even without her saying any other words yet, Talanah knew that Aloy wasn’t about to accept. “I’m actually heading the opposite direction.”</p><p>“Is that so.” It was no secret that Aloy always had something to do, something that not many, if any, understood well. And while she’d miss a good hunting partner, she had no intentions to stop Aloy from doing whatever it was that she needed to do. “Well, it’s been fun hunting with you like before. If you ever pass by this area again… you don’t need to stay for long, but what about another day out hunting?”</p><p>“Actually…” Aloy took another look into her pack. “I’m still short on blaze. I’d probably need to do another restock run before I go on my way.”</p><p>“There’s a herd of Striders just on that side,” Talanah said, gesturing towards the direction of the water.</p><p>“It’s no fighting off Redmaw or those fire-spewers just now, but… what do you say to shooting off the canisters of some Striders?”</p><p>Talanah smiled. Big or small, it was always a joy to go hunting with Aloy, and she hoped Aloy thought the same too. “Let’s do it. And you can tell your story on the way.”</p>
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